Ruminations, reflections and lessons from Ulvik to Bergen

In case you haven’t noticed, unlike last year’s trip on the Great River Road, this journal is being neither written nor published contemporaneously. Instead, I’m making nightly diary entries and reviewing my photos.

I’ve decided I’m on holiday. By now, I’ve traveled over 7,000 kilometers from home to a part of the world I’m unlikely to visit again and, although contemporaneous writing carries certain benefits, it also constricts my ability to savor the experience. The key is striking a balance.

Limited internet access has also played a role. First on the ferry, then in Ulvik, and again in Balestrand poor or no connectivity has added another constrictive layer. Working with a Chromebook, everything is web based so when I don’t have internet access, I might as well be toting a dinner plate in my “personal carry-on” as the airlines describe my little black case. Still, If you’re going to be without internet, you can relax into the charms of a place like Ulvik.

Thus, I’ll have digressive moments throughout. Regarding where those digressions might lead, I suggest you remember that a fjord is a system with many arms and where they lead is part of the adventure. When the tour started in Copenhagen, we were a group of 36 people. In those two days, I started to get to know Kerry and Yvonne, bridge playing partners from Hobart, Frank and Heidi from Melbourne, Denise from Perth and a handful of others.

When we reached Oslo, the group nearly doubled in size. Apparently, the tour operator works with several travel agencies that freely book variations on some master plan. Thus, we had nearly another large coachful join the tour in Oslo and have been gaining and dropping people throughout. Once the tour became this large, your coach assignment became dependent on the location of your ultimate departure and as it turned out, most of those early acquaintances landed on the other bus.

The first of my new connections began on the bus ride to Ulvik with Phil, an attorney from Florida that solidified the next day on the ride to Bergen. At dinner in Ulvik, I met Mary and John – a couple from Minnesota married five years. Working on six.

As we sat at a table in the somewhat cramped dining room of the hotel in Ulvik, Mary and I bonded early-on over the shared experience of being whacked by the door to the kitchen as one of the wait staff hurried to restock something on the buffet. We three began chatting and sharing common interests and experiences.

One is a big sports fan and follows the Minnesota Golden Gophers with some intensity and passion. The other is director of an arts center outside Minneapolis. Upending expectations, it’s Mary who is the sports fan and John who has the more artistic side.

We also talked about the general frustration circulating through the group regarding internet access difficulties. Now, the makeup of this tour is far from being a group of teens and twenty or even thirty somethings. There are a few in that age range and a few much younger but I’d peg the mean age somewhere in their mid-sixties.

Yet, almost to a person, expressions of frustration buzzed through the buses like a swarm of bees. While I couldn’t dismiss some astonishment at how tightly tethered we have become to our devices, regardless of our generation, I also thought while creating a type of power and connection it’s also somewhat isolating. Perhaps a bit perversely, I had to acknowledge that I, too, had an emotionally umbilical tie to mine so pointedly expressed by Wiley’s 14 July Non Sequitur comic strip.

Again though, the natural beauty of Ulvik and the area around it was certainly palliative.

Without this device, I’d be unable to share this experience. Alternatively, without these devices, I certainly wouldn’t see as I would in Balestrand a family sitting at dinner where the father sat reading one Kindle, the mother another, and their son mechanically tapping his thumbs across his phone apparently engaged in electronic conversation with people considerably more distant than the ones sitting opposite him. Of course, his parents made no effort to engage him either. The scene puzzled me.

You see, I know how suddenly, unexpectedly, and dramatically tragedy can visit a family. Moments when we can share our time, our experience, and our love for each other become ever more precious. We should embrace them whenever possible.

This was a distinct contrast with a family in our group, a mother traveling with her two sons aged 15 and 13. Observing their interactions for all of five or ten minutes illuminated their close bonds. Simply watching them delighted me.

Enough of that. The unquestioned highlight (for me) of the drive from Ulvik to Bergen was the stop at Stendal Falls which you can see from in front

or from behind.

From there it was on to Bergen and, although most of the trip was more scenic than the one across Hardanger, taking photos from a moving bus is difficult for a skilled photographer let alone someone with my limited ability.

Let’s learn a little bit about Bergen. Writing about Oslo, I mentioned that Bergen served as Norway’s capital until 1300 when King Haakon V moved his court to Oslo. Bergen is surrounded by seven mountains – the tallest of which is Mount Ulriken at 643 meters. It’s a bit outside the city and accessible by trail or cable car but I opted to ascend Mount Fløyen because it’s the closer to the city and has a  funicular. More on that shortly.

Not only was Bergen Norway’s capital, because of the fish trade, it was also the largest city in Scandinavia. While it no longer claims that status, it remains Norway’s second largest city with a population of about a quarter million people – a bit under five percent of the nation’s total.

Today, Bergen is perhaps best known for either being the birthplace of Edvard Grieg or for the Bryggen which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Bergen Bryggen (let that roll off your tongue) was the center of the Hanseatic League in the mid-14th century. The Hanseatic League – also known as Hansa – was largely a German trade group comprised of a confederation of market guilds that effectively dominated Baltic maritime trade until about 1800. They typically set up an isolated post that enforced their own laws. In Bergen, the post was on the Bryggen.

In this photo, the structures to the far left are not original. Only the ones in the foreground date even to the early 18th century but they required repairs because of an incident we’ll explore below. One other curiosity about this group and its long reach is that if you’ve ever flown on Germany’s national airline Lufthansa, which I will on my return to the States, you’ve experienced at least a linguistic remnant of the Hansa, haven’t you?

Most of the rest of the city center in Bergen is relatively new because the city was destroyed by a major fire in 1916 and none of the wooden structures remain. A conflagration of another sort occurred on 20 April 1944 in Bergen Harbor. On this date a Dutch ship, the Voorbode, filled with nearly 125,000 kilograms of explosives caught fire and exploded. In addition to buildings on the Bryggen, the New Church, the Customs House, and Haakon’s Hall were damaged and over 150 people died. Whether this was an accident or an act of sabotage coinciding with Adolph Hitler’s birth date remains a mystery.

After our bus tour which contained more jab facts about the city than I can remember or relate in an interesting way, I made my way to the funicular for the ride up Mount Fløyen. At the completion of the eight-minute ride to the top, I treated myself to a view of the city.

And, while the view is quite lovely, exploring the area behind the vista point was even more intriguing. The sense I had was that the ride up the mountain was essentially geared for tourists to view the city from above. I found this not to be the case.

Behind the spectacular view is a series of trails and it’s possible to hike to Mount Ulriken. There are roads to allow people to hike up or down the mountain and a multiplicity of play areas for children to explore.

I didn’t brave the walk down the mountain but did treat myself to a beer at Una – a spot recommended by my friend nattyboabdoldbay from the Testudo Times community. I sat outside, engaged in a bit of people watching, then explored the Bryggen a bit more. Sadly, I managed only two photos before my camera battery expired (shame on me for not watching the indicator) and returned to the hotel for yet another in a series of buffet dinners included in the tour price.

Tomorrow, it’s off to Balestrand with a ride on the famous Flåm Railway. For now, I bid you goodnight.